Electoral Legislation Bill Update

Field & Game Australia wants to update members about the imminent passage of a bill through the Victorian Parliament - the Electoral Legislation Amendment Bill 2018. Key attributes of the Bill include:

public funding of political parties and political campaigns, and

providing administrative payments per elected member and per vote public funding ($6 for each first preference Legislative Assembly vote and $3 for Legislative Council vote).

The legislation will deliver a financial windfall to the major parties, and the Greens, based on their number of elected members post the November 2018 election, further entrenching their electoral status and power.

While the legislation will not pass until next month, that is a formality with the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party, Greens, and Northern Melbourne Upper House member Fiona Patten set to help Labor get the legislation over the line. Support of the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party is critical in determining the passage of the Bill.

The Coalition, Western Melbourne Upper House member, Rachel Carlin-Jenkins and Western Victorian Upper House member James Purcell oppose the legislation.

Mr. Purcell thinks the legislation is ‘disgraceful’.

“It’s one of the greediest pieces of legislation I’ve seen,” he told the Victorian Parliament

Dr. Rachel Carling-Jenkins said she ‘was never going to support (the legislation)’.

The original legislation would have made it virtually impossible for voluntary organisations, the only income of which is membership fees, to engage in effective political activity. Thankfully, there will be changes to the legislation to address many of the issues of concern to voluntary organisations like Field & Game Australia.

Those changes are due to the Government and not to minor parties, which did not demonstrate any interest in the problems that this legislation would have created for people like us.

There have been a lot of amendments to the legislation and it will not be possible to assess how all these new rules will affect organisations like ours for a few weeks.